Kristol: Moyers helped mislead us into Vietnam

Promoters could call it the “Rumble by the Rotunda.”

Last week on C-SPAN, a frustrated Bill Kristol was beset by callers accusing him of refusing to appear on Bill Moyers’ PBS special, “Buying the War,” which took the media to task for its role in the run-up to the Iraq War. Kristol said he’d debate Moyers on C-SPAN anytime, and lit into the longtime PBS journalist.

During C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal,” a caller asked Kristol, the noted neocon and editor of the Weekly Standard, if it was true that he didn’t respond to an interview request from Moyers.

“I don’t recall,” Kristol said. “Why would I have an interview with someone whose mind is made up?”

“It’s childish,” he said, before castigating Moyers, a noted liberal who worked under former Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. “I don’t know if he feels guilty about what he did with Johnson about the nasty ad campaign against Barry Goldwater, about his own role of apologizing and misleading the American people on a war we were misled into, incidentally, Vietnam. His own crew said he won’t debate. I’ll debate him. Invite him on here. … Once you go on a show to be edited by him and producers is ridiculous. But I’ll debate him if he wants to have a debate on Iraq.”

Rick Byrne, a spokesman for “Bill Moyers Journal,” forwarded us copies of letters he says were sent to Kristol (dated July 27 and Aug. 10 of last year), inviting him to appear on the show, as well as a follow-up e-mail dated Sept. 8. Byrne also said that after Kristol didn’t respond, “Moyers called his office and left a message following up on their inquiry,” but the call was never returned.

As for Kristol’s comments about him, Moyers told Yeas & Nays: “Our program was not a debate — we presented a factual report. … Our documentary presented the facts, and we asked Bill Kristol four times to participate and he refused. I am not surprised that he’s attacking me personally to divert attention away from the facts presented in the documentary.”

We shouldn’t, however, hold our breath for that debate. Kenneth Tomlinson, outgoing chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, also said he’d debate Moyers during an interview last year. Tomlinson, who formerly chaired the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, said, “If Mr. Moyers wants to do it, then we’ll have lunch and we’ll plan something. As I said, I don’t think it’s good for public broadcasting but I’m certainly willing to do it. Coverable by C-SPAN and other networks.”

C-SPAN is still waiting.

State Dept. vacancy now affecting polo

The Bush administration has never really ingratiated itself into social Washington. But now — gasp! — a reshuffling in the administration is interfering with the playing and watching of polo.

The Ambassador’s Cup match, scheduled to be played June 16 as part of a day of polo in The Plains, Va., has been canceled, as has the ambassador-filled tent of spectators that accompanies the match.

The reason, sources tell us, may have to do with a vacancy at the State Department. In the past, the chief of protocol at State has hosted the ambassadors who attend the matches.

And Donald Ensenat retired as chief of protocol back in February and the department has yet to replace him. But there’s even a bit more to it than that. Ensenat, a source tells us, was an avid polo player. His successor, acting Chief Raymond Martinez? Not so much.

“We don’t normally participate in it,” a State Department spokesman said. “Last year, the chief wanted to. But this year we don’t have a chief of protocol, so we’re not doing it.”

So for now, polo-obsessed Washingtonians — they’re out there — will have to content themselves with the Courage Cup matches, which are contested the same day, and the America’s Cup of Polo, having its debut in Leesburg on May 12.

Brownback gets hip to the cool kids

We never thought that Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., would ever have anything in common with the likes of Sting, Marilyn Manson, Madonna, Snoop Dogg and Bill Gates. But we were wrong. Now, all have taped segments for mtvU’s “Stand-In,” which “surprises college classes by replacing their professor with celebrity instructors for the day.”

The conservative presidential candidate guest lectured at George Washington University’s African International Politics class on Thursday for an upcoming episode of the show, a university spokeswoman tells us.

Brownback gave an eyewitness account of the atrocities in Darfur and challenged the class to take action to end this humanitarian crisis.

Douglas, Zeta-Jones coming for memorial

Jack Valenti touched the lives of countless individuals during his lifetime, so it should come as no surprise that the legendary head of the Motion Picture Association of America will be remembered with an impressive memorial service here in Washington chock full of VIPs.

The service will take place Tuesday morning at St. Matthew’s church and actor Kirk Douglas is confirmed to speak during the event. Other notables in attendance include Oscar-winners Steven Spielberg, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Up to a thousand people are expected for the service.

RFK Jr.: Rove was literally spitting mad

We may never know for certain what happened between Karl Rove and the environmental tag team of Laurie David and Sheryl Crow at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner last weekend. (There now seem to be as many versions of events as guests at the dinner.)

But Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who attended the dinner with David and Crow, tells his own story in this weeks’ New York magazine. Rove “literally started spitting at them,” Kennedy told the magazine’s Amy Odell.

The women had attempted to discuss global warming “in a very civil and gentle and friendly and charming way, and he was as rude and arrogant as a person could be, and turned his back on them and walked away,” Kennedy said. “It was a very strange thing to watch, and a sad thing to think the government is being run by, you know, somebody like that.”